Topic: Adjectives

Day 3: Comparative and Superlative (2 syllables or above and the irregular ones)

1. If the Adjective consists of two or more than two syllables, the Comparative and Superlative are formed by using “more” and “most” before the Positive. Don’t forget the superlatives always have the article ‘the’ in front of them.

Example:	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
	afraid	more afraid	most afraid
	agreeable	more agreeable	most agreeable
	beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful
	careful	more careful	most careful
	carless	more careless	most careless
	changeable	more changeable	most changeable
	comfortable	more comfortable	most comfortable
	dangerous	more dangerous	most dangerous
	delicious	more delicious	most delicious
	difficult	more difficult	most difficult
	enjoyable	more enjoyable	most enjoyable
	exciting	more exciting	most exciting
	famous	more famous	most famous
	foolish	more foolish	most foolish
	honest	more honest	most honest
	important	more important	most important
	interesting	more interesting	most interesting
	pleasant	more pleasant	most pleasant
	polite	more polite	most polite
	tired	more tired	most tired
	useful	more useful	most useful
	wonderful	more wonderful	most wonderful

She is an interesting girl.

She is more interesting than Amy.

She is the most interesting girl in class.

2. Irregular two syllables words

Words like ‘happy’, clever’ consist of two syllables, yet they do not use more or most, but ‘er’ or ‘est’. Indeed, when the second syllable of a two syllables word ends with ‘y’ or ‘er’, we treat it as a one syllable word.

Example:	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
	clever	cleverer	cleverest
	happy	happier	happiest
	pretty	prettier	prettiest

I am pretty.

Mirror, who is prettier, Snow White or me?

Mirror, Mirror, who is the prettiest woman in the world?

3. Irregular Comparisons

Some words have completely different forms of comparatives and superlatives. For these words, you have to remember them by heart as there is no rule for you to follow.

Example:	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
	bad	worse	worst
	evil	worse	worst
	far	farther(further)	farthest(furthest)
	good	better	best
	in	inner	Innermost(inmost)
	ill	worse	worst
	little	less	lest
	many	more	most
	much	more	most
	out	outer(utter)	uttermost(utmost)
	old	older(elder)	oldest(eldest)
	up	upper	uppermost(upmost)

My mother is quite old.

My father is older than my mother.

My father is the oldest in the family.

Note: When we talk about brothers and sisters, we will use ‘elder sister’ or ‘he is the eldest’ to show that a sister or a brother is the elder one (較年長的) or the eldest（最年長的）.

Exercise 1: Identify whether the following underlined adjective is of its positive form, comparative form, or superlative form:

1. Which does Jim like ____________, Chinese or art?

a. much

b. better

c. best

Ans.: b

2. _______________ of the two women is Mrs. Brown.

a. More beautiful

b. The more beautiful

c. The most beautiful

Ans.: b

3. He jumps __________ of the three.

a. far

b farthest

c. farther

Ans.: c

4.Who has _____________ apples now, Jim, Lily or Lucy?

a. much

b. biggest

c. the most

Ans.: c

5.She is ____________ than me at drawings.

a. better

b. best

c. good

Ans.: a

6. we have, the more we want..

a. The more

b. More

c. The most

Ans.: a

7.The picture on the right is ____________ of the three.

a. beautiful

b. more beautiful

c. the most beautiful

Ans.: c

8.of the two pencil-boxes, the boy chose the __________ one.

a. less expensive

b. least expensive

c. most expensive

Ans.: a

9.There are some books here. Can you tell me which is ___________?

a. more interesting

b. most interesting

c. the most interesting

Ans.: c

10.He is my best and __________ friend.

a. good

b. favouritest

c. favourite

Ans.: b

Exercise 2: Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the adjective:

1. Peter is the _____________ (bad) boy in class.

2. Tom has _________(much) money than I.

3. Which do you like ____________(well), tea or coffee?

4. She is the _____________(good) friend I have ever had.

5. My brother is _____________(careful) than me.

6. You are far _____________(polite) than you were.

7. I can do it well with even __________(little) money.

8. The ___________ (carefully) you study, the fewer mistakes you will make.

9. The jacket is ___________________(expensive) than the dress or the pants.

10. Miss Li is one of the _____________(popular) teachers in our school.

Ans:

1. worst

2. more

3. better

4. best

5. more careful

6. more polite

7. less

8. more carefully

9. more expensive

10. most popular

Exercise 3: Proof reading: There maybe one mistake on each of the following sentence, so please cross out the wrong adjective and write the correct one in the bracket if there is any error; if there isn’t any, write ‘tick’ in the bracket.

1. The situation is getting difficultier.

2. I’ve got the most small office.

3. This photo is the goodest.

4. Money is the importantest thing.

5. This game is excitinger than that one.

6. Of all the students, Sara does the more work.

7. I feel more bad than I did yesterday.

8. The CD is expensiver than the cassette.

9. We did the interestingest project.

10. How much farer are we going?

Ans:

1.difficultier → more difficult

2.most small → smallest

3.goodest → best

4.importantest → most important

5.excitinger → more exciting

6.more → most

7.more bad → worse

8.expensiver → more expensive

9. interestingest → most interesting

10. farer → further